110 



SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



Sept' ^ e WUK * comul g rather to the eastward of south on the morning of the 



y-Y^ 26th, and the ice having advanced much nearer than before, our situatio 

 vVsd 26 



' was no longer a sheltered or secure one. At one P.M., therefore, we weighed 

 and hauled over for the eastern land, where alone from the depth and nature 

 of the soundings, we entertained any hope of finding security for the night. 

 We reached this coast just as the day began to close in, and, being unac- 

 quainted with that part of it near which we fetched, I went in a boat soon 

 after six P.M., to sound for an anchorage, the Fury being then in stays in six 

 fathoms, and half a mile from several small rocky islets. Finding the 

 water deepen gradually to seventeen fathoms, I soon, with the assistance of a 

 boat from the Hecla, selected a birth for each ship, and leaving our little boat 

 with a light, as a guide to us in anchoring, returned on board, sounding the 

 whole way back. Standing in immediately to save what day-light yet re- 

 mained, we struck soundings as I expected in seventeen and then in fourteen 

 fathoms ; the leadsman next called out five, and before the helm could be put 

 down, or the man in the opposite chains obtain another cast, the ship was 

 fast aground on a bed of sunken rocks. The sails were instantly thrown 

 aback and as much weight as possible brought aft ; and in the mean time 

 Captain Lyon anchored on our weather quarter, for the purpose of heaving 

 the Fury off by a hawser. It being fortunately dead low water at the time 

 of our grounding, this was accomplished without difficulty or damage, and at 

 eight o'clock the ship was backed off into deep water. After making a tack 

 we anchored at half-past nine, by means of the Hecla's light, the weather 

 being now so foggy as well as dark that without this guide we could not 

 again have ventured near the shore. In the course of the night some streams 

 of ice came in upon the ships, the heavier pieces fixing themselves on the 

 rocks on which we had grounded. 

 Thur. 27. Perceiving at daylight on the 27th that the main ice had nearly reached 

 us and was still advancing, Captain Lyon and myself went in the boats in- 

 shore to search for some security against it. The bottom proved so rocky 

 and irregular that no proper place could be met with till we had rowed a 

 couple of miles to the northward ; and here we came to a snug though small 

 cove that seemed to suit our purpose. In the mean time the ships had been 

 directed to weigh, in doing which the Fury, being hampered by a light and 

 baffling wind, cast the wrong way, and would once more have driven upon 

 the rocks but for the timely assistance of the Hecla's boats, which Lieute- 

 nant Hoppner promptly despatched to tow her clear of the danger. Leaving 



